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Volkswagen increases production, adds jobs

Volkswagen’s U.S. arm announced Tuesday that it will be increasing its production at its Chattanooga, Tenn. plant. The move will add 200 more jobs to the area.

Production boosted by 13 percent

The new jobs will be added to increase the production of its 2012 Passats from 31 to 35 units every hour. That is a 13 percent increase in production.

Hiring to be done in the area

The new hires will all be full-time employees, working under the UAW’s recently-adopted two-tier hiring strategy. Hans-Herbert Jagla, VW Chattanooga’s Executive Vice President of Human Resources, said:

“We have had good success hiring local people who can work together as a team to build our cars safely and with the highest quality. Now we are excited to have 200 more people join our team.”

Aerotek positions to open as well

Currently, the Chattanooga plant has 2,500 employees. Two-thousand work for Volkswagen and about 500 are employed by Aerotek, the German automaker’s staffing partner. Ryan Rose, General Manager of Human Resources, said many of the Aerotek team will be taking VW jobs, leaving vacancies for the Aerotek positions.

To apply

Besides production workers, some supervisor and engineering positions will also be added by VW. Those wishing to apply can do so at www.vwjobschattanooga.com. Applicants must minimally have a high school degree or equivalency, and must be legally able to work in the U.S.

Moving the Car of the Year

VW opened its $1 billion Chattanooga plant in 2011. The plant will be making the U.S. edition of the 2012 Volkswagen Passat, Motor Trend Magazine’s 2012 Car of the Year Award-winner. The automaker wants to sell 800,000 cars by 2018. Sales in the U.S. were brisk last year as the company moved 324,402 units. That is a 26 percent increase from 2010’s figure of 256,830.